XCom 2: The Second Contact because the first wasn't enough
by VoidMask
Summary: With Advent defeated and the Elders dead, Xcom becomes the ruling government of the earth and her colonies. While the former advent forces are taken under Xcom wings, not every alien is as friendly as them, so it's up to Xcom to do what it does best, and that's not miss a 95%. WOTC content being added. (Big)AU First Contact-3rd game. Xcom and Mass Effect Crossover.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Everything had gone according to plan. The Advent tower, the Assault on the elders. Humanity was free at , as with all things, it was not that simple.

Some of the first problems encountered were the humans. They needed housing, they needed food and water, and they needed security. The resistance could barely keep up with it all. It only got worse as now the aliens tried to come.

As it seemed, most were slaves to the Elders and their psionic power. As such most had no memory of who, or where they were. Much less what was happening at the moment. When they tried seeking help, they were slaughtered by the resistance forces thinking they were hostiles..

Most of the advent troops ended up seeking out the Skirmishers instead of falling into the same trap as the aliens. Joining them under Betos's leadership.

Thousands of Aliens were killed by both the Reapers and Resistance forces before Xcom dropped the metaphorical bomb on them and ordered them to stop killing the aliens.

At first Xcom was almost put on the Chopping block. Them using cloned Vipers and other aliens for the freeing of humanity had been one thing. Dealing with the skirmishers had been another. But this? Denying people their revenge? Their blind uninformed hatred?

The Skirmishers soon came to Xcom's side, not much to everyone's surprise. Xcom very quickly offered proof that just like the forces of advent, the aliens were slaves to the Elders.

It was a surprise as the Templars came to Xcom's side. Though, it wasn't really because of the evidence or because of the Skirmishers or even Xcom. They knew that everyone would have to band together if they were to win the war that was coming. Geist knew, that out of all the people that could win the war. It was the Commander and those under his command.

The Reapers are not so satisfied, wanting instead to wipe away the aliens and leave Earth for the Humans. Volk had his goals and it seemed like he wasn't going to change, the reapers went back into the cold as Xcom, Templars, and the Skirmishers banded together to try and quell the sudden Chryssalid hives that would keep popping up, left uncared for in the fighting.

In a twist of Event, the two Reapers that had come to Xcom, the ones who had fought and bleed along aliens in the Xcom forces managed to gain some followers and Left Volks group. Instead going and Joining Xcom.

Meanwhile, the Reapers under Volk become the Terraforma Directive, a political group bent on human domination and alien genocide. Now, they become the terrorist that Advent had called them once.

After a few years of fighting and death. The resistance, humans and aliens alike. Finally erase the Chryssalid population from Earth. WIth the threat gone, and the Psionic Call stopping. It seems that Peace and safety is finally at hand for the humans and aliens.

 _But if that was the case this story would be boring wouldn't it?_

 _ ***Heeeyyyy guys and gals. I'm back and working on it!***_


	2. Yes a TimeLine

_**I AM THE MASK OF THE VOID! REJOICE FOR I HAVE RETURNED FROM THE DEPTHS OF LIMBO TO BRING YOU THIS STORY! Yeah, not enough Xcom stories. So I made this. I don't own Either Xcom or Mass effect. If I did, things would have turned out a bit different. Enjoy.**_

 **2024-2029 CE:** Xcom hacks the Advent psionic network, due to this they are able to show shocking proof of the Elders genocide of humans. Not only does this cause humanity to almost entirely rise up and fight advent. But it also disrupts the Psionic chips implanted in every alien and almost every Advent troop. The Skirmishers have suddenly thousands of advent coming to them seeking freedom and somewhere to call home while a few aliens follow them. Most are dazed and confused. Many die during this time from confusion or Apathy on both sides of the field.

Xcom takes a stand for the aliens left behind by the Elders, this causes strife within the resistance. But Evidence showing that they were being controlled by the Elders, along with the Templars and Skirmishers defending this decision for the most part the Resistance grumble and follow along with this. Although at large the aliens are given wary glances and outright cold glares. Most people are used to them being around and don't, for the most part, give them a hard time.

The Templars, Skirmishers, Reapers, Xcom, and the rest of the resistance face off against Chryssalid hives and manage to destroy them all. During this time the Reaper split into two groups: Terraforma Directive and the Umbra Cultro [Shadow Knife is the basic translation]. The latter joining Xcom and the resistance while the other became a terrorist group.

Peace is achieved, well...more like quiet and controlled chaos as Xcom and the resistance settle down and began to talk over government. A basic government is set up. A democratic one meant to make sure that at least the laws were followed. The president of this government was kept in check by a council elected by the people. However this almost collapses as people began vying for power and trampling over their fellow man, another civil war nearly breaks as people start to take sides. Xcom slams an iron fist down to smother the flames of chaos before it spreads.

Xcom has to step in and become the temporary government. This never changes.

All aliens are given rights on par with any human with some exceptions. All Psionic capable humans and aliens must wear inhibitors so that they are no threat to civilians and military personnel; Codexs are not allowed to clone themselves unless it has breeding involved.

Having no culture or technology of their own the former enemies of Xcom become model citizens, some races are killed off as they cannot live on the planet without causing massive problems, such as the chryssalids, and berserkers. Races such as the Vipers, Sectoids, Codexs, Mutons, GateKeepers, Faceless, and Andromedons are allowed to live and breed/clone to get their low and struggling population up, however there are population controls put in place to prevent a possible alien uprising

 **2030 CE:** Since the former advent forces had extensive modifications to their alien DNA with human DNA a large magnitude of people sought to have them classified as "XenoHuman". This caught on quickly and was met with positive feedback, soon all former advent forces were renamed XenoHumans and closer the different beings came closer as a whole.

AI, are given rights as well, provided that they are sentient. Julien is completely shut down, but his code is looked at. AI creation will come in the future due to Dr. Shen and her father's work.

 **2032 CE:** Xcom is split into four branches, that may have their own head of command but still report and will take orders from The Commander. This causes a bit of rivalry within the branches, everyone wants to be on the commander's good side. But that's not an easy thing.

 **Psionic operations:** This branch of Xcom deals with anything psionic, ranging from human to alien. If it uses psionic powers they have de facto control over it. All personal when not in a combat zone must wear psionic inhibitors. Not wearing one is considered grounds for a dishonorable discharge.

 **Umbra Cultro:** The elite of the elite. Shrouded in mystery and secrets this branch is the scalpel of Xcom. Precise and fast. One of the branches that are still mostly human as few aliens make it into the branch.

 **Xcom operations:** The bulk of Xcom's ground troops and vehicle units. This includes any robotic troops or personal. It is also the least exclusive branch as their motto is. "Omnes nos unum sumus" [Roughly translates to 'We are all we are one]." Due to this they are also the largest and require the most supplies and money. But no one is complaining about their presence as Xcom markets them as an "Army of the people, for the people."

 **Xcom Navy Operations:** This branch deals with spacecraft and anything having to do with space Navy Operations also have a hand in colonization operations. While most of the crews are Xeno human and Human alike, Mecs and rudimentary AI are used in certain places.

 **2034 CE:** Seeing as the earth is now starting to strain under the heavy load of its new diverse populace Xcom funnels funding and supplies into a space traveling and terraforming program with Dr. Shen at its helm. Under her guidance and technical expertise, the program blooms into a reality. Mars is the first planet looked at for terraforming as evidence shows that at one point the planet could support life even before humanity had evolved. It would support life once more under Shen's care. Researchers and engineers both alien and human look into the creation of AIs through not only coding, as that seems to make slightly unstable AI. But also through to process of scanning brains and coping them.

Ruins are found on Mars and while most of the technology is seen as inferior and unwieldy some are taken and eventually improved on. Such as barriers and FTL; one of the main reasons that the newfound technology remains largely unused is because little Element Zero is found in the system and it is found to be highly toxic to both humans and aliens, though it seems to positively affect codexs. Scientists are not able to confirm why this happens or what triggers it.. And surprisingly Codexs report to feel slightly "energized" near the toxic element. The Commander's daughter is born.

 **2039-2041 CE:** A breakthrough in the creation of AI happen. The first brain scan created AI comes to life. While not as intelligent as a coded AI they are found to be more stable and emotionally capable than the coded. As such all AIs are to be made from the slow process of brain scans.

Now Xcom had to give them bodies. In the military, they are given mechanical bodies that Advent and the aliens once used. Mecs, Sectopods, Cyberdisks, Seekers, dones all became a part of the Xcom military, boosting their firepower and swelling their ranks.. While simple humanoid androids were built for civilian use.

 **2045 CE:** Several relationships crop up between humans and nonhumans, while met with mixed reactions most turn positive after the Commander announces his support for such relationships with his now famous speech:

" _We have long since been divided because of the Elders and their mind games, their slavery and apathetic nature. If we continue to hate each other, to stay divided because of grudges and the actions of those who wished our enslavement. Then we have only come so far to succeed at doing what the Elder's willed. That thing would be ruining Humanity's future. Our children's future and their children's future. I will not silence those who disagree with me. But I plead for you, with tears in my eyes. Do not destroy everything we have built, do not make all those sacrifices those both of human and XenoHuman be in Vain, don't destroy our hope of a better future."_

" _Now is the chance for us to all come together, now is the time for us to offer each other a hand and take it. I stand here today, to support these relationships. Because I know. Even if we were to ban it, attack it, despise it. Love would still happen. Because Love isn't bound by something as petty as race, by any barrier. Thank you all for listening, and caring to take my words into consideration."_

While some terrorist groups target these couples Xcom quickly puts them down before the terrorist cause any true harm with surprising efficiency and speed. However, the Terraforma Directive remains in the Shadows, biding their time.

Mars is fully terraformed and can now support life, several animal species and plants are encouraged to not only live, but thrive there. 1,156,892 Xcom citizens move to Mars to colonize it. This proves a success and Mars becomes another thriving world. 620,120 more Xcom citizens relocate to Mars. More planets are planned to be terraformed, though a shocking discovery is found at Pluto. As scientist discover Pluto's moon, Charon was actually a ball of Ice with strange energy readings coming from within it. It seemed the Elders had small outpost floating around it for study. Those were quickly scrapped and new posts were set up.

 **2052 CE:** Shockingly a large amount of element 115 is found on mars, mines are immediately set up. With the new amount of elerium readily available more and more experiments are able to be performed. A boom in economy and technology is predicted to occur. Mapping of the former advent's brain is finally able to be complete in mere weeks. Due to this the AI population booms and they start to become more commonplace.

 **2068 CE:** After twenty-one years of extended drilling and tests on Charon's surface the ice ball begins to fall apart. Seventeen personnel did not make it off surface before the ice ball collapsed and are presumed to be dead. Along with the loss of life most of the gear brought down to the ice ball's surface is lost. Despite this tragedy a large-scale discovery is found. Underneath the ice was a large object shaped like a tuning fork with a large-scale element zero core.

A ship, the _Truth of Freedom_ somehow activates the massive tuning forkand disappears for a split second before they report through the psionic network that had replaced the ones the elders had used. The big news? That tuning fork like device had flung them farther than Xcom and humanity had ever hoped to travel in their collective lives. Almost immediately Xcom started up four major shipyards dedicated to ships meant for exploration and terraforming planets. The fleet of _Humanity's Reach_ was to be built at a rapid pace not matched at any point in the Earth's history. The Commander passes away in his sleep; his daughter is voted in to replace him. AI have been created and have the three laws of Robotics deep coded into them. They are realized as fully sentient beings. Humanity's government slowly changes into a Monarchy, the change is subtle and quiet. Few notice it, but when they try to make the general public notice this they are called nuts. When an assassination attempt on the Commander is committed by one of these people, the whole idea is considered a sham.

 **2082 CE:** The Fleet of _Humanity's Reach_ is completely built from the largest ship classified as a manufacturing Ship dedicated to acting like a mobile industry jump starter, to the smallest which was classified as a scouting ship able to nearly touch the ground while flying. After this fleet was deployed another fleet began to be built along with ships capable of war. In the fleet were also medical ships and live ships that held the would-be colonist, both human and nonhuman. At this point in time however a shift had occurred in the society. A garden world was found. A planet that was already suitable for most XenoHUman and Human life. The Planet was quickly and rather aggressively colonized by Xcom when they discovered the soil to be extremely fertile. In the following years, this planet would be called Eden Prime and it would grow the most food for Xcom and the worlds under Xcom's care.The current Commander's daughter is born.

 **2094 CE:** MECs are commonly used for AIs to have a body. Research in more humanoid and non-military functional mechanical bodies is increased. Several gene mods are reinstated for volunteers in the military to take. MEC troopers are not however. Standard robotic bodies are created for the AI to help them work and enjoy civilian life.

 **2100 CE:** A second tuning fork is found; these structures are labeled "EZ Slingshots". Sending the freshly built fleet _Humanity's Fist_ which had been bolstered with new war class ships. Thick alien alloys for the armor bolstered with energy shielding and kinetic barriers, with ship class plasma weapons and EMP cannons. Some of the larger Battleship classes can build MECs and Sectopods and deploy them, even if the process is slow, it would be a nasty surprise to anything on the ground. When questioned about this, the current Commander simply offered these words: _"First contact bettered humanity, but only after a long bloody path of war. Now Humanity is roaming the stars. It'll be first contact in space and we don't need to be found with our pants around our ankles."_ Many, especially the XenoHuman, agreed.

 **2120 CE:** Another world ripe to be colonized without terraforming is found. Named Shanxi after a plateau province of North China. Colonization is quick and steady. Soon both Eden Prime and Shanxi were booming in their respective economics and earth was apricating the lessened strain. Instead of continuing their expansion Xcom settled down and became to terraform the planets that resided between the worlds they had found.

Though the colonization was slower on these planets for the reason that both XenoHumans and Humans just could not breed fast enough. The Vipers could, but the restrictions were still in place. However, a few months after the beginning of the year those restrictions were eased up on and some planets quickly gained the Vipers as a majority before restrictions were set back into their previous strictness. The current Commander resigns and for the second time in Xcom's long history, her daughter is voted in to take her place.

 **2150 CE:** Another relay is found, Xcom builds and then sends a scouting fleet: The _Eyes of Humanity_ to scout beyond the relay, unfortunately little to no XenoHumans volunteer for the journey. They are prepared for a long journey but they were not ready for combat. But the fleet gets delayed when a terrorist group bombs the shipyard where they were awaiting to be given the orders to launch. The terrorist group is put down quickly and without mercy due to one member being caught alive and having his mind read. The fleet _Eyes of Humanity_ is grounded until both them and the shipyard is repaired. A hidden avatar facility was found on earth and quickly destroyed, the only thing not destroyed was a lone avatar who had been in stasis. He was taken in for further questioning and whether not he was to be killed.

The Lone avatar was deemed not to be killed but he was heavily incarcerated with several psionic inhibitors on him at all times to prevent him from trying anything funny or jailbreak wise. He would serve 135 years in jail for his crimes against humanity. A "life in prison" for a regular human; seeing as medical technology has expanded the human life quite a bit. He would get out in 2175, possibly 2170 with good behavior. There was an explosion in a plant meant for refining element Zero, the explosion spread element zero half across the colony that the plant had been built near.

 **2157 CE:** Xcom is called in to do what it does best, defend humanity. First contact with the Turians happens and it is violent. Two dozen kids show powers similar to psionic but are fundamentally different, seeming to affect gravity more than minds. Something awakens within the darkness between stars.

 _Something Evil._

 _ ***A/N* Just to tell you guys, the updates are going to be a bit slower. Me and the Beta are working on a book. It's Got aliens, humans, wars of survival, slavery, Councils, 'Gods', the truth to life, romance, action, and pain. It covers a lot, but perhaps I've said too much already. ;) Beta: Damn straight. There's pain. Lots and lot's of pain.**_

 _ **Not self promoting, just excited.**_

 _ **Reeeally excited.**_

 _ **Also yes I deleted the chapters for The story. I'm making improvements and changes. It won't take long. Promise on the Void my followers.**_

 **Beta: Anyway, Yeah. We'll be working on this together, as well with the novel we're writing. So I mean, if you guys are perhaps interested in it or something like that, just message me,** _ **(Or me the VoidMask)**_ **Drewman784. That's my username for both Steam, Discord, and Fanfiction so be free to do that. But…, god I'm turning this all into self promotion. So in conclusion, I hope you enjoy what's to come.**


	3. Hey look, War

_***A/N*Good news everyone! I got a beta! (shoutout to you know who) Which is good because my stories are mediocre in terms of following set lore. Mainly because the wiki for mass effect doesn't fucking tell you who was there during the shot heard around the galaxy (He means the beginning of the first contact war). So, with this beta my story will improve beyond your means of measuring! (I better, otherwise what's the point of a Beta?) Alright I don't own Xcom or Mass Effect. Let's get on with this story.**_

 _ **All XenoHuman talk is**_ **bold print** _ **because of the voice synthesizers that they use to talk.**_

 **Humanity's Eyes; Flagship; year 2157, June 1st**

Admiral Valery Moore watched as the rest of her fleet exited the atmosphere of Apollo, a recently terraformed planet that held a major shipyard that had been bombed. She took a deep breath. Today was the day her fleet would embark on a trip to the semi-newly discovered EZ Slingshot and activate it. Hopefully they would find some worlds that did not need the terraforming touch of humanity. Hell, if they did her fleet would get to name them, that would be fun at least. The trip there would not be.

Indeed, a one-week trip just to get there and then god knows how long a trip around the newly found system to check all the planets. Still despite all this, she and her fleet were making history. Who gives a shit if it is a long trip? With that thought in mind she let a small smile grace her lips.

Admiral Valery and her fleet would indeed make history, just not in the way that she and the rest of her fleet, Humanity's eyes, thought that they would.

Admiral Valery's XO, Zoey Cooke a codex with a body that was a soft blue instead of gold, walked up to her in a graceful stride. Valery rolled her eyes at the sight, did all Codexs have to be so graceful all the time? Not once had she seen a Codex stumble or trip. Not once did she see a codex bump into anything, just a hundred percent grace with every single step. It annoyed her really.

" **Ma'am all ships have exited Apollo's atmosphere. Shall we embark to the Triton EZ Slingshot?"** Zoey asked in that overly angelic synthetic voice of hers. Another thing that irritated Valery, every Codex she'd met had some kind of angelic voice; well except for one that had gotten a deep masculine voice for shits and giggles.

"Yes, let's make history Zoey." The Codex nodded her head, that void black hair like stuff flowing in the air, why did Codexs have to be so…. damn good looking? Valery averted her gaze from Zoey, not wanting to be caught staring at her subordinate's behind. Admiral Valery sighed yet again, damn she wished she was still on leave with her wife. Thankfully Zoey wore a jumpsuit like most of her kind instead of a tight skin suit like some did. "Gonna need a cold shower later." She muttered to herself as she looked out the video screen that Allowed her to look into the vacuum of Space.

 **Turian Scouting ship; VSS Watchful Eye; June 2nd**

"A patrol by the Attican Traverse? What are we? A fleet manned by recruits?" Lieutenant Tiberius's subharmonics hummed in annoyance as he looked over his fleets set patrol route. He set it down on the table in front of him so that he could pour over some reports.

"Sir, we're picking up some strange gravitational readings from the Relay!" An Officer reported to Tiberius via an earpiece In Tiberius's ear.

"Strange gravitational readings by Relay 314?" Tiberius asked no one in particular. Could it be an upstart race? Or slavers trying to find another race to target? 'Maybe this patrol is going to get a lot more interesting than I thought it would be.' He thought to himself as he set the report down and instead of grabbing another report he picked up the patrol route and made a few adjustments, surely it could just be nothing.

But Tiberius was not one to ignore such things. He set the patrol route datapad down and went back to the reports he had yet to look over.

The estimated arrival to the relay? _A week._

 _A simple week until the galaxy witnessed a shift that would not soon be forgotten._

 **Humanity's Eyes; Flagship; June 8th**

Mark Reeds was your average sectoid, he had psionic abilities and he disliked heavy clothing. Which is why he wore a tank top, shorts, and shoes; he was grateful that he was under the Admiral Valery. She was very lax on regulations and cared more for her crew's comfort than for formality. He still had to wear the psionic inhibitor as that was the law, not that he had any complaints, the humans were much better at ruling than the Elders. Much nicer, paid him, and they were less likely to use him as cannon fodder. Or so he heard, he hadn't been under the rule of the Elder. But he'd seen the videos, the pictures.

He fiddled with the translator on his neck, he didn't really have lips or a tongue flexible enough tongue for him to speak any of the human languages. So, like most XenoHumans, he wore a translator around his neck so he could communicate with others. It was actually really cool, he could choose a voice too, though he preferred the voices that sounded slightly synthetic, again he couldn't complain. Hell, he was happy about beds! He had tried out the sleeper pods that some XenoHuman and human alike used during the Advent occupation of earth and he had no idea how anyone could choose that over a bed. Sure, it slightly increases your lifespan, but you never really felt as rested as a bed would make you. The comfort? He could rant about that.. He took a glance at the vid screen he was stationed near and caught a glimpse of the EZ Slingshot, he felt excitement bubble up in his chest. Unlike most Sectoids he would be making history.

He was sure his parents would be proud of him, their little Markie was a part of history. Maybe he'd bring back his mother an alien flower? A thick banquet of them too. He hoped they looked like sunflowers, or were yellow. That was his mother's favorite color.

Admiral Valery Watched as the dormant EZ Slingshot came into view and couldn't help but grin, her neat white teeth being shown by the action.

"All right. History here we come." Zoey walked behind her, nearly soundless except for the slight buzzing noise that accompanied Codexs. Valery spoke first, not wanting to hear that slightly disturbing angelic voice.

"Alright search the bands for any signals and let's see if we can get this big tuning fork running." She didn't need to turn around to know that Zoey just nodded and turned to relay the orders. The bridge was filled with excitement, after a long week of just flying through empty space, alone in the void; things were going to get much more interesting.

 **Turian Scouting ship; VSS Watchful Eye; June 8th**

"Lieutenant sir we have three ships that don't match anything in our databases near the 314 relay. Orders sir?" an ensign to his left reported with an iron in his voice. For a moment Tiberius stood there, thinking of ways to handle the situation.

"Get me a reading on those ships, power up our barriers, get ready to power up weapons if they turn out to be hostile, we can't be caught off guard. I want information but otherwise get ready for a first contact scenario." Tiberius ordered while he gazed out at the relay before he felt a lead weight form in his gut, one of fear.

"Are they trying to open that relay? Get me an answer!"

The ensign tapped furiously at his terminal as he quickly followed his superior's orders. He turned from the terminal to the Lieutenant.

"Sir I'm getting little to no readings of eezo in the ships, though I am getting some strange energy readings from them. Some kind of, odd radiation as well" The ensign looked back at his terminal, eyes scanning over the words and readings appearing on the screen.

"Sir I'm getting the readings in, they are trying to activate the relay." Tiberius growled openly in response.

"First contact protocol be damned! Gunnery! I want every ship to focus fire on the ships closest to the relay. I doubt these primitives understand the bigger picture, this is Citadel Space and we must uphold the law. Make sure theses primitives understand that the law is not be taken so lightly." He turned to look out into space with the video screen. Finally, he ordered his pilot to follow the ships if they had to. He prayed to the spirits that nothing bad would come from this.

History is like a mountain, slowly building over time into an breathtaking view to take in. Just like a mountain all it takes is a pebble to cause a landslide, and to turn something beautiful into something deadly.

 **Humanity's Eyes; Flagship; June 8th**

"Uh Ma'am?" A rather nervous sounding ensign spoke up from his station as he looked over what the screen in front of him was showing.

"We've got six unknown ships that just came into the system from out of nowhere. I have no positive ID on the ships either. We might be dealing with a new race." He offered, not taking his eyes off the screen in front of him; it was almost like his eyes were glued to the screen.

"Wha-" He didn't get to finish asking what he had planned on asking the Admiral as the ship closest to the EZ Slingshot suddenly got hit by all three unknown ships.

Valery watched with horror and shock as the ship under her command scuttled itself as per the codes in its computer programing. At first she was stupefied, but she quickly snapped out of it. She didn't get to be admiral and a commander of a fleet just to freeze up when trouble arose from the depths of space.

"GET US THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" She yelled out the orders as she watched the last ship under her command get cracked in half then scuttle. Her ship was the next to be cracked open so they were all sucking void. Like fuck she wasn't going to warn the Fleet at Shanxi about some new elder. Funny, earlier she was excited about making history. Somehow she didn't like the idea of being the first to meet an overly hostile race.

"Zoey!" she snapped.

 **"Ma'am?"** a nervous voice answered her. Usually Valery would have enjoyed the shift from angelic to something other than the light ethereal tone, but for some reason the threat of dying made it feel much more sour than joyful.

"Get that inhibitor off and travel through the psionic network to Admiral Karmer's Flagship near Shanxi, they're the only ones that can defend Shanxi if these aliens attack. It's been an honor Zoey." The Codex nodded as she unplugged the inhibitor from the back of her mechanical skull. She dropped it on the floor and saluted the admiral before disappearing.

Admiral Valery never felt the round that killed her, neither did her crew, just like the ships that had been destroyed before them. But humanity as a whole felt it, it hit too close to home for most. In turn humanity, would make damn sure the galaxy as a whole would feel it.

 **Turian Scouting ship; VSS Watchful Eye; June 8th**

Lieutenant Tiberius sighed rubbing his plated brow in frustration as the six ships under his command made way to the relay that the primitives were heading to. He had just ordered his ships to destroy three seemingly weaponless cruisers. They were probably just following orders given to them. Spirits if those were civilian...Tiberius shook his head slowly, suddenly feeling much older, his bones aching. He had no time to think over such things. If something like the Rachni came out of those relays more than three ships full of people would die. Three ships full of innocent people he had given the order to be killed.

"Send a report back, Spare no details. We need a suppression fleet. I believe we are about to get into another conflict. Tiberius ordered as he looked at what little remained of the ships. He couldn't even see any bodies and he saw little in the term of wreckage they could shift through. So, he had nothing to go one with these primitive's ships except that they had barely any eezo and they didn't use barriers or just had weak ones. For all intents and purposes a child in the intergalactic scene.

And he was starting a war against them. Spirits forgive him, he was only doing what he had too.

 **Wayward Burst; Flagship; June 8th**

 **"I fear that the fleet Humanity's Eyes is destroyed and I am the only survivor, six ships came out of nowhere and immediately opened fire on us. I saw two ships destroyed before Admiral Valery gave me the order to abandon ship to warn you. Those aliens could be coming for Shanxi next."** the codex in front of Admiral Karmar was obviously disturbed by what she had gone through, her entire form shifted and distorted at random, after images of her appeared whenever she moved. Usually Codexs had more control over their form.

It was this body language and the utter desolation in her voice that made him believe the uninhibited Codex named Zoey. He nodded and saw her shoulders seemingly slump in relief, she had probably thought he wouldn't listen.

"Go get yourself a new inhibitor and some rest. You'll need it Zoey, that is if anything you've said is indeed true, I think we're all in for quite a ride. Let me and my fleet deal with these bastards." He ordered with a soft voice, he didn't know how many friends or family the XenoHuman just left behind to warn him. The least he could do was give her orders with a softer voice.

" **Yes sir, thank you sir."** She said crispy before turning heel and leaving the bridge, her body becoming much more stable but still distorted and shifting.

He shifted to face the video screen, the empty space replaced with a relay that was active and probably sending six hostile ships his way. When he gave the orders, his usual hard voice demanded the attention it received.

"All ships focus on that relay. Whatever comes through If it isn't made by us blast it to slag. Vigilo Confido." He got a chorus of "Vigilo Confido" in return and watched as the four ships under his command positioned themselves roughly fifteen hundred kilometers from the Relay to avoid any drift the relay might give the hostile ships but still be close enough for their plasma and laser weapons to do maximum damage. He took a calming deep breath. Time for humanity to make itself known as a standup race, a sovereign power that wouldn't bow to anyone. Kramer began to prepare for the possibility of attack from a hostile race. He had a feeling it was going to be awhile until he would get any sleep.

But humanity would not rule the Void, for none truly did. But humanity would show the galaxy that they were just that: a sovereign power that wouldn't bow to anyone. For they had done so once and never would they make the same mistake again.

 _ ***A/N* SO, I'm only typing on the weekdays as my weekends are pretty full. But as I said. I'm working on grammar and story with the revises. Nothing giant until the later chapters**_


	4. Chapter 4

***A/N* Are you all ready for war?** _(Beta: No)_ **Are you ready to see what happens when you fuck with Xcom? No? Too bad I'm telling you anyway.** _(Damn…)_ **I don't own Xcom or mass effect.** _(Obviously)_ **If I did this fanfiction would totally be canon.** _(thankfully that is not so)_ **Also happy birthday to me! I managed to get a copy of Xcom 2! So now I can actually finish the game! So that's why the chapter is late(and school, but what can you do?)** _(Nothing)_ **and I apologise because now I feel very bad for keeping you waiting. I may have done some revisions to the timeline so go look at it.** _(...This is going to be a pain to Beta…)_ **maybe you should beta more so you don't have as much to do.** _(shaddup…)_

 **Edit: Eyyy. So, I might be combining chapters to just make bigger chapters. And I'm still getting OCs! I feel quite loved.**

 **Also berserkers are male, hence the experiment being the Berserker Queen. Just like how the vipers were mostly female until the viper king came along. Xcom killed off the berserkers because they were engulfed in blood rage and were very unstable.**

 **As for why I said that, well, you know who you are.**

 _ **Turian Scouting ship; VSS Watchful Eye; June 8th**_

Tiberius watched the holo screen that showed him the outside of his ship, his eyes widening slightly when five ships that suddenly came into view as his forces came out of the relay. How had they gotten a message out? With a green and red glow from different weapons being the only warning they got before five of his six ships were hit, two being heavily damaged as their eezo reactors were hit. When he said hit, what he meant was that most of whatever they were shooting went right through shields. The red, what he presumed to be lasers passed through the shields with ease, while what he guessed to be plasma took down the shields in a matter of seconds after several quick bursts from the five jaw fell when he realized that this race had energy and plasma weapons! Definitely not primitives!

"Fallback through the relay now! We have to warn the suppression fleet!" He was about to yell into his headset when he realized just exactly what he had lead his men into. An ambush!

"Sir! Our communications are jammed and we can't contact the other ships!" The ensign said, Turian discipline was the only thing keeping the Turian from panicking. Tiberius was being kept steady by the fact that he had men to lead. To each their own it seemed. His own ship was hit, a part of his ship being cleaved off by the deadly red energy that the enemy ships fired.

"Everyone to the escape pods now! Put in the order for the ship VI to scuttle itself!" Tiberius knew they wouldn't stand up to the fire of the ships, especially as two of his own ships exploded from within. Probably either scuttling themselves, or their eezo cores going up.

No-one argued of course, as a turian you could complain about orders but you always did them without hesitation. Orders were orders. This time no one complained but Tiberius wasn't stupid. He could feel the grim atmosphere on the bridge as they followed his orders. Tiberius looked at the screen showing the five strange ships that had decimated his mixture of six ships. Tiberius watched as the other ships under his commander scuttled themselves or got destroyed. Very few being able to send out any escape pods. What had he gotten the Hierarchy into? To Tiberius's credit, he was the last Turian off the ship before it scuttled itself.

But Tiberius already knew what he had done. He had started a war and although he did not know just yet, that war would prove that Humanity was as brutal as it was diverse.

 _ **Wayward Burst; Flagship; June 8th**_

"Escape pods or maybe just sealed suits?" Admiral Karmar muttered underneath his breath as his XO reported that the damaged ships had began to apparently scuttle themselves to avoid capture, yet there were still life signs out in the wreckage. Either way he was probably going to get a few prisoners, in a few other situation he would have ordered his men to fire on the life signs.

But something had caught his attention, mindless slaves or die hard military did not try to escape death. No they fought until the bitter end. He had seen the videos of the old Advent forces like all the military did. No preservation, no care for their own life. But this new race? No, they abandoned ship to survive his own ships' surprise attack. That alone told him quite a bit about this new, unknown foe. Prisoners would tell him a lot more. Corpses would tell the eggheads more and in turn he would learn more. Weaknesses, strengths, and possible targets.

"Get some *VoidRangers out there. I want any usable scrap or living Xrays brought aboard. Use the *SMM MECS to collect them." Less risk of death that way and it never hurts to use a little intimidation "Asap." He ordered as he watched the scrap of the unknown ships float in space through his video screen. Time to learn about Humanity's newest enemy.

He closed his eyes for a moment, taking in a breath before letting it go. Peace was great while it lasted.

 _ **Escape pod 7 from the Watchful Eye**_

The inside of the pod was silent and filled with a dishearten atmosphere, never before had the Turians had to scuttle one of their ships, never before had they been defeated by ships that did not even use Mass effect technology. But these were not the primitives that the soldiers had thought they would be, no this race had energy weapons and stranger ships.

"Energy weapons. Spirits damned energy weapons. If I had only known." Tiberius growled not in anger but in shame. He had assumed that due to the lack of eezo in the ships they had just begun their first steps, he had not wanted to open fire on a new and unknown race. But he had too. If they had opened that relay and something like the Rachni came through…...But now, he was sitting in an escape pod floating listlessly in space possibly surrounded by hostiles with better weaponry than the Hierarchy. Hindsight was always 20/20 wasn't it?

Even though he should be focusing on the task at hand even if he really couldn't do anything, but instead he thought about his two kids. He had no idea what the universe he was going to leave them would be and that shook him up. Tiberius knew what he had to do, he had to make sure he left a better world for his kids. It didn't matter how, just that he did. First thing he had to do, was to get back to them. To do that, he would have to survive this. Something hit the pod, the jarring impact knowing most who were standing to the ground. Someone groaned in pain and Tiberius couldn't help but agree as he had been knocked into a wall. He realized that he could faintly hear machinery. This came as a shock to him, had the suppression fleet dealt with the unknown race or much to his dismay the unknown race was the one collecting his escape pod. Yes, it had to be the unknown race, the suppression fleet wasn't to be here for another day. Which meant he was at best a POW now, and as were his surviving men.

Looking around he realized how under equipped the turians in the pod were, sure they had their side arms, a few even had simple automatic rifles. They hadn't been prepared for close combat. But, maybe they had a chance. Small as it may be.

"We won't go down without a fight, when these damned newcomers open up this pod I want you to show them the might of the Turian Hierarchy. Try to grab their weapons or just kill them, then make way for the cockpit. We might be able to force their pilot to fly us through the relay. We have to warn them that a fleet of twelve ships might not be enough and to warn them of the surprise attack these newcomers have planned." He told the remaining crew. Many looked uncertain but some nodded in excitement, ready to show these unknowns that the Turians were nothing to mess with. That the Turians had been the protectors of the galaxy for a reason.

Soon though, their hopes of escaping would become null...

 _ **VoidRanger VR-42 "Recovery"**_

" **Scan that pod, I don't want the techs whining to me if those X-rays pop from our atmosphere and getting the place dirty. I certainly don't want to report to the admiral about a failure of capturing these new X-rays."** Kassidy said motioning to the pod, her fellow AI following her orders as they didn't want to be the cause of a mission failure. The squad of MECs designed for space maneuvering had dragged the pod, or rather floated it, back to the Larger than most VoidRanger. One designed for scrap or pod collection.

 **"Alright."** a female sounding MEC to her left muttered after scanning the pod and it's atmospheric composure.

" **They won't pop ma'am, or choke to death. So we can open it whenever you order us to."** Kassidy nodded to the MEC, who she found out to be Linda due to the black lettering on her chest plate, unless some other AI had jumped in the wrong MEC by accident. Normally they used spectre bodies in combat, but right now it was better to be armored when dealing with unknowns.

 **"Good. I have the restrains. Let's show them what happens when you attack us. "** She ordered as the three other MECs noddedbefore getting to work on the pod. Linda stood at ready with her MEC issued standard LPR-MV (Laser pulse rifle mark 5) laser rifle pointed at the pod ready to shoot if the X-rays tried anything. Though she was going to take limbs off instead of just gunning them down like she could.

 _ **Escape pod 7 from the Watchful Eye**_

Waiting was always the worse thing about any fight, the moment before when you're waiting for it to happen, for the orders to come in. It was just as bad when you were the one in charge. Despite some liking to paint the Turians as fatalistic, those in command did not like sending those under their command to their death. It was a waste of not only resources and manpower, but also a waste of life.

He heard some kind of clanging happening around the pod and filled his chest with a breath of air to calm himself. Of course if they had a different atmosphere than what they had, they were going to die a few moments after the pod was opened, so...there was that to take into consideration as well.

There was one more clang before the sound of rending metal filled the pod and much to Tiberius's shock and horror the end of the pod he was facing was being torn off! "Spirits!" someone yelled. Though he agreed and he could feel a pit growing in his stomach he had men to lead. "CHARGE!" Tiberius commanded as the end of the pod was fully ripped off. And so all seven Turians ran out of the pod to face the enemy.

 _ **VoidRanger VR-42 "Recovery" Xcom**_

"You know, if all of these X-rays are like this I think we'll beat them in no time." Linda said as she knocked one of the X-rays rushing her to the ground. Her leg was raised into the air before coming down on the X-ray's legs. Blue blue spattered out accompanied by the sound of breaking bones and the X-ray's scream of pain. None of which had any impact on the MEC wearing AIs. Kassidy only nodded in agreement to Linda's statement as she shot the arm of a different X-Ray who was attempting to charge her, said limb fell off leaving the avian X-ray with a cauterized stump.

What ever they were shooting at the mecs had little effect, although they were making pockmarks and scratching the armor deeply.

Bringing his weapon's butt down onto the face of an X-ray Hunter grunted at the two lady MECs conversation. Chiming in with his own two cents as he subdued one and applied the restraints.

" **What we got here are X-Rays without weapons doing a desperate rush to try to take us out, probably try to force the pilot to get them past the EZ Slingshot. My bet? It is going to get nasty."**

" **Jesus Hunter you are just an absolute ray of sunshine."** The AI said sarcastically as she backhanded an X-ray that had gotten to close to her.

" **Wish we had tasers, these x-rays look like they have metal on them, it would be a hell of a lot easier."**

" **Though it is pretty cool to see how raptors would have evolved if they had been like apes."** One of the X-Rays smarted up and raised its hands and stopped trying to rush the MECs. For its surrender it was tossed back into the escape pod relatively unharmed. One of them saw this and a couple of clicks and hisses later and the X-rays who were not on the ground because of the pain or loss of limbs stopped and put their arms up. Kassidy grabbed the one who had sent out the order, obviously he was the one in command, or he was just smarter than the rest. Either way he was more valuable than the rest. The rest of the X-rays were thrown back into the pod, he wasn't. Command had some questions that needed answers.

" **Alright. Apply bandages to the bleeders and get the restraints on them."** The AI Kassidy ordered as she shouldered herLPR-MV.

 _ **VoidRanger VR-42 "Recovery"**_

To say that Tiberius was not prepared for what was outside the pod was an understatement,as his men ran out to attempt to overtake their capturers he realized how dead they were. Standing around eight feet tall with white metal plating, a smooth narrow with a single sensor going down the front of its head were synthetics or mechs. The guns in their hands were just as big and menacing as they were. Still, to his and his men's credit they did not hesitate in their charge. Almost immediately the three synthetics showed how little they cared for the charge when his men were met with metal fists and lasers. Tiberius watched in horror as an ensign got both her legs crushed by the foot of one of the damned things.

He couldn't move, his body had froze up as he saw one of his men lose his arm, falling down clutching at where the limb used to be. Another got knocked down by the butt of one of the three synthetics weapons. There were three, three damn synthetics were putting down his nine men with almost an air of boredom. It made him angry, it terrified him. He watched as an ensign threw his arms into the air and tried to surrender. Tiberius wanted to berate the man, these were synthetics or mechs they killed organics with little to no feeling, they don't care if you surrender.

But to his utmost shock instead of killing the man, with laser or metal fists, they instead roughly tossed him back into the pod. The puzzle pieces fell into place much too slowly for his liking. They weren't killing his men, not out right. No they were incapacitating them, sure some would die without medical care but they weren't outright being killed.

"Stop!" he ordered "Put your hands up now!" Some seemed too slow to follow the order and received either a laser to a limb or a metal limb with enough force to break bone. Those that did as he ordered were thrown back into the pod. Though he wasn't surprised when he wasn't, he had said something and the others followed marking him as in command. He was sure to be picked out the rest.

Some black collar was forced around his throat and a sharp pain jabbed into his spine. "Spirits!" he cried out in pain when it felt like something was wrapping around his spine and only his spine. One of the synthetics nodded to another and then grabbed him in its three fingered hand and dragged him to what he assumed was the back of the ship and it held him there tightly, not moving.

"Well?" he asked fully away it could not understand him, still it felt good to say something, anything.

"What's the purpose of doing this you oversized heap of scrap metal!?" He tried to struggle against its strength but that prove futile when it just squeezed harder and thus squeezed the breath out of him before it let up enough for him to breathe.

Unknowing to Tiberius his actions would set off a domino effect, it would cost millions of lives, but it would save billions more.

 _ **Wayward Burst; Flagship; June 8th**_

"Recovery has collected a pod of nine X-rays sir, some are in worse shape than others due to the AIs rough handling of them. But otherwise they'll live for now. So far the four other escape pods scuttled themselves leaving no survivors but we have two other pods recovered but have yet to open them. Vigilo Confido Admiral." His XO reported before turning and walking away.

Admiral Karmar nodded and said his own "Vigilo Confido" as he looked over the bridge, it was time to learn about Xcom's newest enemy, through interrogation or dissection. He couldn't care which direction he had to take. He was Xcom, he would do anything to protect humanity. He turned to leave.

"If anything comes through that relay matching those ships I want them reduced to dust in the solar wind." He left with those orders in the air. He was going to give the new X-rays a warm hello. A very warm welcome. However his welcome would only last for so long as he did not have any means aboard his fleet to get information from an alien, so he would have to send to new X-rays planetside for study.

 _ **Wayward Burst; Flagship; June 8th**_

He found himself roughly thrust into a room by the same synthetic that had lead him to said room through the large empty halls of the ship. He quickly scanned the room, the only thing he could see was a bare table and chair. He was no dunce, he knew he was to be interrogated for any information he could provide. This was only a formality however, he knew that much. Even if they did beat it out of him the language barrier would stop any true exchange of information.

Though, more than likely they were going to get revenge for the ships. He might have done the same in their position, if not for his discipline. Idly he wondered what the race that had made those AIs looked like, if they were dead. Tiberius, unlike most people, knew that the geth were not AIs. Not true AIs at the least. True AIs could understand emotion, could mimic organics in some ways. Roughly still he was pushed into the chair, getting the idea he sat down and it felt like the chair was meant for an asari. So, it was rather uncomfortable to him.

Now sitting down in the uncomfortable chair he saw another synthetic walk into the room and take post by the door and the one that had been his 'guide' did the same on the other side of the door. Then his captor came in, causing Tiberius's jaw to drop and his mandibles to flail out in shock.

Shapewise it was like an asari, and it's skin tone was the same pale skin color of a dead asari. While those features alone would shock anyone he knew, it was what could be called it's head that downright horrifying. It's entire head was shrouded in an inky black that flowed and trailed it's head like long fur, two pure white eyes seemed to glare at him with hatred, then the final feature were the afterimages it left behind it. Everymove of...whatever this this thing was had an afterimage following close behind.

It reminded him of what those asari called "Creatures from the Void" Turians just called them the Damned Spirits, who were evil in life and continued to cause misery and strife even in death. And one was standing _right. in. front. of. Him._ Surely he was dead! His ship destroyed or his pod cracked open in space! Now this was the afterlife he was faced with? The Damned!? Had his actions caused that much damage? What had he done, cause a war?

While not dead, Tiberius's actions did start a war, short as it will be. But that war will start a much colder one that would snowball into a war that would have been slogging on for decades had it not been for a select few.

 _ **Wayward Burst; Flagship; June 8th; interrogation room**_

Captain Tara Omni wasn't one for theatrics, her thoughts and actions were efficient and quick just how she liked. But to say that she didn't enjoy showing off every now and then would be a white lie. Right now? Well she was enjoying the x-rays, from what she could tell, shocked look as she strutted into the room while purposely, slightly, distorting herself.

With the slam of her curled up fists on the table the X-ray scrambled out of the chair it was in and tried to get as far away from her as possible. Her friend Zoey had almost been killed in this x-rays unprovoked attack, though her lover, a human by the name of Jonathan, had been killed. This of course had distressed Zoey greatly and Tara was going to get some simple revenge. Unfortunately she wasn't going to be able to get physical with this one….yet. The admiral wanted to get an up close look at the new X-ray. Thus she could not damage it, not yet that is.

This aggression on her part was something that would surprise those who knew her, it would surprise herself had she been looking at her actions with a critical eyes. She was a "cold blooded" individual, not much earned her ire, nor raised it to such levels of wanting to put physical harm on another.

However what made this case different was the fact that Tara had few people she could or would call friends and Zoey was one of them. To have this unknown race of x-rays come out of nowhere and nearly kill her friend and kill her friend's love interest, well an eye for an eye made the whole world blind but god gave this lifeform two eyes for a fucking reason, and she would have one of those eyes.

 ***A** **/N* So to be clear on Codexs. Here's an explanation that might satisfy you. Do note, the Codexs in this story take after their concept art although they have traits of the Codex in game. Explanation: "Codexs are biological and extra-dimensional. They are based off the Outsiders** **(Who may make an appearance, tell me what you think)** **from EU: both use a physical device to act in the form of tuning devices, enabling them to generate a biological body capable of manipulating matter in this dimension. Once that body takes too much damage the body will dissipate, leaving only the device behind. This does not "kill" them in the we understand; they simply cannot sustain their body in our dimension. Thus in this AU when a codex is "born" it is basically that device being made and then a Codex coming into our dimension. From there on out they grow as a person. Codexs also do not die from old age** **.**

 **Past all that I need OCs!**

 **Name:**

 **Gender:(Codexs, Outsiders, and Asari are monogendered)**

 **Race: (AI, Xenohuman, human, turian)**

 **Age:**

 **Family?:**

 **Personality:**

 **Appearance:**

 **Rank:**

 **Combat Role:**

 **Combat Style:**

 **Now they won't be a hundred percent accurate but I can try my best to stay in character. DO note that these characters are almost strictly for the battle of shanxi, though some may pop in later to say hi, shoot some people, or have a drink. Some of them may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make. Enjoy my friends. Again sorry for the wait. Also, no op things please.** _(Heh, this may have been a pain to beta but at least I kicked his ass in Xcom 2. Edit: I still do)_ **But I won the last couple of times. So Tie** _(blah)_


	5. I! AM! ALIVE? Maybe?

***A/N* JUMPING JACKS IN HELL WILL YOU LOOK AT THAT? Oh look. I'm alive. Strange bit that is isn't it? We'll I'm not going to waste your time with an apology. Though I am sorry for the wait. Writing a book with my Beta, Playing DARK SOULS 3 and trying to find a damn job has been taking up most of my time. So sorry about that. However I am back in the groove after jumping back into Xcom 2. So you should expect a small thing for Dark Souls and me writing for this Fanfiction. SO REJOICE HOO HA!**

 **Peaceful Flight; above Shanxi; June 10th**

The holovid played again, showing the whole thing from the Turian's helmet mounted cam. What did it show? It showed Desolas Arterius just how much he was hated by the universe. Well what it really showed was the fact that this was not one race his fleet were fighting, but instead multiple.

The large...reptile was feminine, had the torso, breast, and hips of an asar,i had two arms and hands as well. But it didn't have legs, instead it had a massive tail that it stood upright on, and it's head and neck had some kind of...hood made of flesh. Desolas Arterius watched as the large reptile unhinged it's jaw and it's….tongue shot out faster than the Turian could dodge. The Turian got snagged by the tongue and was dragged over to the reptile, an impressive feat by itself, Turians were heavy and the reptile looked surprised when it began to drag the Turian.

'Had it expected it to be easier? Do these reptiles do this constantly?' He wondered to himself as the reptile coiled its tail around the unfortunate Turian, stopping the Turians from doing anything to retaliate, that ended when the reptile brought the barrel of it's gun up to the Turians face and Desolas ended it before he could hear the shot. He switched over to another report that described synthetics as tall as the buildings that walked around on two legs with a massive cannon fixed on the top of their bodies. So far explosives were needed so they could shred the thick armor they had. Oh and apparently they had traps, when his troops got close to a body it would explode, what kind of sick culture did these races share?

Worse still, more and more reports of different races kept pouring in, he almost couldn't keep up with it. Thankfully….if one could even be thankful, around ten. There was no way to tell if that number was correct however. They could very well be dealing with another Council like that of the Citadel Council. The thought made Arterius' mandibles twitch.

Two months, his fleet had to defend itself for two months. Thank spirits they didn't have ships.

 **Avenger S-001; Xcom command ship; june 10th**

General Mason inwardly sighed as he looked over the holographic map of the city, the red dots showing him where the x-ray camps were. Of course an invasion would take place a week before he was to be transferred to Mars, fucking aliens. With a silence born from frustration and stress he thought over how he was to deploy his troops effectively. Unfortunately for him and every Xcom citizen and operative in the area the air force base had been carpet bombed by x-ray bombers. Along with all the interceptors destroyed; the General in charge of the damn interceptors was there when the base got bombed. So that was a general down along with all his staff. Now the only type of air support General Mason could command was a single SkyRanger which was in the Avenger he was currently commanding from. But he couldn't even use that, those damned aliens would shoot it down as soon as it left the avenger.!The only relief he had was the fact that he had AA MECs at his command, but he only had 28 of those.

"Get a squad of four to guard each and every AA MEC we have deployed. If those go we can kiss our asses goodbye." He ordered as he watched another dot pop up. He could feel his eye twitch. Damn aliens. If he got out of this alive he was retiring. He was, ironically, too old for this shit. "What's the progress on the Psionic gate?" He asked as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"It's six days out sir." He didn't know who said it, but he heard it. Guess that's all that mattered. "Good." He said "I want two AA MECs placed on it at all times. If that Psionic gate gets destroyed we're in a crock of shit." He said as he stood up, back popping in a few places as he did so. "Get me comms to all squad leaders and anyone in command. Time for a little...Shock and awe. We're going to show these aliens just how fucked they are."

 **Altia Adepdros; Turian cabal; june 10th**

There wasn't many things that terrified Altia Adepdros, what was currently happening to her, however, made her want to throw down her weapon and bolt. Forget about this whole war. That is, if she even had control of her body. She watched through her eyes as her body refused to listen to her. Instead it was listening to something...foul. Something that that hated her, a thing that wanted her to suffer. She could tell from the pure malice she felt from the thing that had snatched her body and taken control.

Altia watched in mute horror as she primed three grenades and lobbed them at her allies, they did not expect such a betrayal and did not even notice the grenades until they had landed at their feet. She watched as those she considered great friends and even family get blown apart by her own grenades. Blood and gore splattered the area as the thing forced her to duck so that she wasn't caught in the blast. Altia felt like she was bound in rope, she began to wiggle. She couldn't let this murder of her friends and family go on, not on her watch.

Altia paused in her struggle to escape as her body brought up her rifle and gunned a comrade down, the look of shock on his face etched into her mind and on his corpse. Her struggle renewed she began to buck around in her mental bindings. She felt great relief when she felt the bindings loosen. That relief turned to horror as she watch herself prime another grenade, run past cover, and embrace another turian as if she were a lover.

Altia didn't feel pain when the grenade went off, she didn't feel anything, anymore.

 **Putius Murnion; Turin sniper; june 10th**

One didn't need to be a general to know things were bad on both sides, spirits, he had almost lost his head to a counter sniper! Luckily enough for Putius the building that the sniper had been on had collapsed before the counter sniper could sight in and not miss the shot a second time. Putius could also consider himself lucky because he had not even seen where the shot had come from, all he had felt was intense heat as green streaked by his face. He had turned just in time to see two bombers streak by and bomb a building into rubble.

He took a moment to thank the spirits that he hadn't lost his face to that sniper. Done with that, Putius quickly got into the standard position for a sniper, scanning the streets below for any ground units. He had done this an uncountable times while training, so it felt almost as if he had snapped into place. What caught his eye and made him pause as he looked through the scope would have thrown any one off, but what also made him truly pause was the sudden crash of noise that assaulted his ear canals.

One of those giant, two legged synthetics one could mistake for a vehicle was stomping through the street. But that wasn't what threw him off, no it was the multiple turians heads on pikes all over it's body, some of the heads were mutilated. Missing fringes and mandibles alike. It was also...painted in blue blood, intricate designs drawn with what he assumed were fingers from the prints that could be found all over it. Putius felt bile rise into his throat as he realized that 'music' if one could call it that, was coming from the gore decorated synth. The sound was ominus and loud, with clashing bang and heavy drums with some kind of sound he had never heard before. Like a heavier, quicker version of those stringed instruments the asari played. Then there was brutish, angry, enraged screaming. It also supported dents and scorch marks, obviously from previous battles, he even managed to spot a few ragged holes in it.

Putius grunted as he snapped out of his shock, he had to report this, and warn the squad that the ma-too late for that. The machine was upon them, one soldier was crushed underfoot by the massive synthetic while another poor turian was ripped to shreds from the cannon on top of the machine's body. He watched as blood and gore splattered the ground behind were the poor turian had once stood. "Dammit...well I can't help them now, but command needs to know." He grunted as he brought up his omni-tool. Only to find he was being jammed. "Dammit." He groaned before he started to run to the stairwell that lead to the street, taking out his pistol in the process. If he had to deliver the message on foot so be it. All that mattered was that command knew that the large synth was in this sector patrolling.

 **Strike Team Omega;Sapphire B. Chaser; june 10th**

The psionic man sat at the floor level of the hospital, back against a wall as he sharpened one of the four knives. Wrap around sunglasses concealed his eyes as he studied the current blade in his hand. Finding it lacking, or just from the nervous feeling in his gut, he began to sharpen it again.

 **"You sharpen that blade anymore Phoenix, and it's going to break when you use it."** Came a voice from his teams AI, Ion, said with a snarky tone having been here to watch him sharpen it for the past twenty minutes.

" **Phoenix."** The sniper of the team, a codex by the nickname of 'TreeHugger' spoke up through general comm of the squad. **"I've spotted Xrays, trying to be sneaky. Not good enough however to not get spotted."**

He nodded standing up straight. "Understood, get ready." He told his squad, his family. "We have orders to protect the general getting surgery here. No doubt the only reason they haven't bombed this place is the AA mecs on the roof. So Ground assault is their only option here." He gave his rifle a once over and glanced at the glass doors and windows that made up the front of the hospital. This wasn't going to be easy **.**

 **Caneus Caladonis; turian light infantry tank gunner; june 10th**

Caneus Caladonis watched with no joy or emotions as the bodies seemed to pile up from his gun, one...two...three...four...five...six...some weren't even the enemy, but instead some were turians that suddenly seemed to change sides and began to attack their former friends and allies. He had even gunned down someone he had fancied, he felt numb honestly. Caneus was surprised by this, he should have felt anger and rage at the enemy and the traitorous Turians. But he didn't, he just felt a creeping numbness that was growing from his chest. It seemed to grow with each body that fell. Seven...eight….nine….ten...eleven...twelve….thirteen. He watched with little interest as one of his comrades found a child of one of the ones with fur atop their heads. The child, male, Caneus presumed was crying. But also glaring at them with what he could only describe as a seething hate that didn't fit into a child's eyes. The child's eyes were soulless and dull in such a way it sent shivers down his spine.

It did come to a shock as the red, beady eyed child suddenly exploded, taking out five of his comrades. Caneus closed his eyes as his face and upper body was coated in blue blood and some kind of clear slightly tan fluid. He realised suddenly that it was one of those shape shifting aliens that would sometimes spring up out of nowhere. Sometimes they were disguised as civilians, sometimes as other turians. Caneus heard a cry of war and another of surprise belonging to a turian and looked just in time to see a missile streaking at him.

Slowly life seemed to breath into Caneus, he felt agony shoot up his spine as he tried to move. He groaned in response to the pain. Slowly he managed to crack his eyes open. Caneus sat upright with another groan. Looking around he found it to be night, the fire raging at what was once a light infantry tank had deceived him at first. At first he wondered just how he was alive, he would have needed to have been dragged from the wreckage before the fire consumed him. From the blood trail on the ground it was obvious that he had not been tossed from the explosion. However the bandages on his legs told him exactly what had happened. One of those aliens must have bandaged him after dragging him away from the wreckage.

Caneus felt himself giving the aliens some respect, despite the tactics used by these newcome-aliens. They weren't newcomers to the galactic scene, not with that many races. But this...alliance of aliens, at least they didn't kill heedlessly. He could respect that. He hadn't joined up for a war, he had stayed in the military to stop just those types of people, scum who killed without reason. Now he was fighting several unknown races and synths. Spirits, they had synths. He didn't know how to feel about that. He should have felt disgusted, these races were breaking council law! But he didn't, how could they be breaking the laws if they were not in council space or had never heard of the council? He didn't know what to think, thankfully he wasn't paid to think, just to do as he was ordered.

Slowly Caneus got his feet, using a mangled rifle as support to do so. He could not hold back the grunt of pain that came with him standing up. He could only be grateful that none of his bones had been broken in the blast. Now he had to find actual medical attention. Which meant a long walk. Well at least he was alive, a painful walk couldn't be that bad. His chest felt uncomfortable, but he contributed that to shrapnel or his armor being damaged by the explosion.

 **Sinia Drusdas; sentry at outpost 8; june 11th**

As much as Sinia would have complained about being posted to guard the outpost, she couldn't find herself to do so, lest she get orders to actually fight. Sinia had heard rumors of how these aliens fought. The dead were laid out with traps, giant mechanical beasts covered in Turian remains, aliens that could could even shapeshift! Turians just turned in combat and began to slaughter their former allies. Sometimes they'd change into these eight foot tan monsters and sometimes they wouldn't. No one knew what was going on or what they were exactly fighting. The only thing that EVERYONE knew, was that this was not a single race that they had come to pacify, no, this was an alliance and the Turian hierarchy had better get ready for a nasty war. Or if it did just turn out to be a single species, they had abused genetic modifies to an unprecedented scale. If that was the case… how truly advanced were they?

Sinia heard the soft alarm go off, which meant everyone was too snap up and pay attention to what was going on. She straightened her posture and scanned around for what might have triggered the soft alarms. She noticed a bloody, obviously injured, turian at the gate, he had bandages on his legs, he was using some warped piece of metal to support himself, from what she could see. She quickly jogged over to him, being a slight bit paranoid.

"Report! Are you okay? What happened to you? Who are you?" she demanded. Injured friendly be damned, he might be a shapeshifter. She'd seen the bodies, she wasn't going to end up like them.

"Caneus Caladonis, I was a gunner for a light infantry tank. We got ambushed on the border of our secured perimeter. So much for that… I managed to survive...the crew and the squad assigned to us were not so lucky. I need medical assistance, I'm suffering from blood loss, external and internal at this point. I am sure if I don't get medical assistance immediately, I'm going to die" The injured turian explained quickly, slightly swaying in place.

Sinia scanned over him with her OmniTool, the scan was quick. He was a turian. She motioned over to a couple of grey tents "Over there. Get yourself patched up then report to the command tent." She ordered, she didn't even know if she had any rank over him, most of his armor was black and charred, his omnitool must have been broke in an explosion. The gate silently closed as Sinia made her way back to the post she had been assigned to.

She watched the injured Turian intently as he walked to the medical tent, seemingly unaware of her watching him. Suddenly and without warning, he deviated off course from the medical tent and began to jog to the command tent. Sinia stopped in her tracks, what was this Turian doing?

"Hey!" She yelled at him, rifle cocked. The Turian swung around to face her, face stony, his eyes glowing a strange purple color. They stared at each other for a moment, no other Turians were currently present. The Turian then began to sprint towards the command tent, ignoring Sinai's warnings as she ran after him.

"Stop!" She yelled, sighting the Turian through her scope. The Turian only went faster, despite being badly injured. She closed her eyes shut and fired a quick burst, the Turian falling and a pool of blue blood quickly forming around his corpse.

She stared at the corpse for a moment before running up to him and turning him over. His eyes stared straight ahead, dead. She tore open his armor after hearing a strange noise and sure enough, numerous alien devices lay there, strapped to his body. She stared at the alien devices in disbelief. Even though alien, she could tell they were explosives and they were primed.

Just what kind of aliens were they going up against?

 **Kim Holz; Xcom Psionic Scout at outpost 8; june 11th**

Kim Holz cut the connection between minds just before the x-ray was shot by his own ally, she then watched the female x-ray run up to him and check the body. At that point she primed the X4 charges. The alien female must have heard the beep because she tore the armor he was wearing off to expose the charges. The alien x-ray managed to make what kim assumed to be a face of shock or horror before the charges went off.

Kim had to suppress a giggle as she ducked behind a tent, all the x-rays were sprinting to check out the now destroyed command tent and ashes of the two unfortunate x-rays. She was glad for invisibility, long ago invisibility was a pipe dream for military forces. But with the study of seekers Xcom was able to copy their stealth technology. Which is why she was currently silently walking from tent to tent. Ducking into cover wherever she could. Invisible or not she felt safer behind cover.

"Command tent is destroyed." Kim reported "and I saw that in fact females do look different from males….and they do have tits apparently. You owe stephen eighty bucks Jace." She added on with mirth in her voice, clearly taking pleasure in Jace's misfortune.

 **"Wha?- oh fucking hell."** the sectoid huffed **"Well there goes my money. Alright whatever objective complete get the hell out of there Kim."** Jace ordered sourly, obviously unpleased by his loss of money.

"Uh...that might pose a problem." Kim muttered as she noticed the gate, pretty much the only exit that didn't have a scanner of some sort, closing shut. "I'm kinda stuck here now, if I go through any of those other exits they'll notice me…..do you think they would mind if I set up camp on the remains of their command tent?" she asked

The sectoid was silent for a few seconds before he responded dryly **. "I couldn't tell you that, why don't you go ask one?"**

"I might just have to do that." Kim spoke softly, fear creeping into her gut as she peaked over the low cover of a broken street lamp. "Because I really don't feel like staying here until they have to use the front gate. Jace come on help me out here man."

 **"I don't quite know what to do."** He admitted **"Is there no place you can scale the perimeter fence at? If not...uh..make a distraction and run for it. Mark which entrance you'll use and I'll cover you when you make a run for it."** Jace offered.

 **"I guess that'll have to do." Kim said nervously, she was Xcom to the core,** but that didn't mean she wanted to throw her life away for the cause like some did. Honestly those people freaked her out a little, she'd seen a few suicide bombers go off. "Alright..marking escape route, tell me when you're in position to cover me." Kim tried to keep her nervousness out of her voice as she spoke.

Apparently she didn't do a good enough job as Jace commented on it. **"Come on Kim, we'll grab a smoke after this. You paying of course. I'm afraid my wallets a bit...tapped because of that bet."**

Kim scoffed "Yeah okay. Just get into position you bone bag." It quiet for a few minutes before Jace's voice came over the comms, and thankfully nothing seemed to have gone wrong while the comms were quiet. **"Alright, Get going and get going quick, I think I see transports coming in."** Jace said quietly despite him not needing to.

"Right." Kim said softly before breaking out into a full sprint, her form shimmering with the rapid movement. She wished she had a wraith suit instead of a seeker suit. Then she could have moved right through the damned perimeter fence instead of having to sneak around. Why they couldn't mix the suits she could not guess. She grabbed her two grenades and primed them. Tossing them over her shoulders she kept in that dead sprint.

She heard the explosions go off as she passed through the "doorway". The scanner went from orange to red and loud alarms began to blare throughout the camp. It took almost a minute for the bullets to start raining down around her, a few pinged off her armor and revealed her as it made the cloak drop. Almost immediately Jace began to return fire, the purple beams of his psionic rifle going wide as he tried to suppress as many of the x-rays as he could.

" **KIM LOOK OUT ROCKET!"** Jace shouted in panic. Kim looked over her shoulder with eyes wide in fear, she could easily see the rocket streaming at her, far too quick for her to dodge the rocket safety. Still Kim tried to jump out of the way but she felt intense pain as the rocket hit her back, tossing Kim into the air before violently dropping her back to the ground.

It was a few moments before Kim opened her eyes, a ringing sound in her ears as she groaned. She tried to get back onto her feet, tripping and almost falling down again. As hearing slowly returned to her, she could make out Jace's worried shouting in her ear as x-rays quickly closed in around her. She sloppily dodged the bullets and collapsed into cover as bullets rained down around her, missing her form by inches. She did a quick check on her armor. Most of it had been destroyed by that rocket but thankfully, most of the vital systems remained operational.

" **...Kim! Kim, can you hear me?"** Jace shouted into her earpiece. "Yeah, yeah, I'm as fine as I can be after being hit by a god damned rocket!" She yelled back at him, straining to be heard over the gunfire **. "Kim, thank god, I was able to convince command to send some reinforcements, they'll be here in another minute, just hold out until then!"** Jace yelled. "Well tell them to hurry the fuck up! I'm not sure how long this cover's gonna hold!" She yelled back as another bullet pinged against her cover.

Suddenly, a pulsing object flew at her over her cover. She looked down to see a small spherical object land by her feet. Her eyes widened as she recognized the design of a grenade. Without thinking, she grabbed the grenade and chucked it back over her cover. The grenade never landed back down, exploding in mid air as Kim ducked back into cover to avoid the blast. "Come on, where's the reinforcements?" Kim whispered

 **Orinthia Ochoa & 2401 Ruinous Bias; Xcom Viper Sniper & Cyberdisc nearing outpost 8; june 11th**

Orinthia Ochoa or "smiley" as some would call her, smiled as the wind pulled at her body. **"Hey Ruinous Bias thanks for the ride"** Orinthia said loudly to be heard over the rushing wind. The yellow scaled Viper and the plain white cyberdisc flew through the air to where the two other Xcom operatives required reinforcement to survive. **"With your help I'm sure we can get there quickly and make sure no one gets hurt."** She said happily as she got ready to be dropped on a nearby building.

" **Yes, I do hope they are okay. I wish these x-rays hadn't started shooting when they met us."** 2401 Ruinous Bias replied with a masculine voice with synthetic undertones. He wouldn't be in his comfort zone for this mission. He'd have to cover the retreating and most likely injured agents before getting out himself. Which he could not do from a distance. So he would have to get down there and draw fire. Not his strong points but he'd gladly do it. He could be repaired easily, they could not.

" **Your drop point is coming up. Let go in three...two...one, drop."** 2401 Ruinous Bias counted down as he 'felt' her grip loosen on his shell. He felt her weight disappear along with her grip. Now came up his part. 2401 Ruinous Bias could help but feel a bit nervous as he changed from flight mode into combat mode in mid air. Time to be a hero he supposed.

Orinthia Ochoa quickly got into position, she couldn't miss these shots. No, not with lives on the line. She quickly line up the iron sights on an x-ray with a heavy weapon who was from what she could tell reloading. That might pose a danger to the nice cyberdisc she had met and she couldn't allow that to happen. She pulled the trigger, a powerful stream of plasma went from her barrel into the air before it met with the flesh and metal of the x-rays head and continued onwards to hit the ground and melt the reinforced concrete.

It brought her no joy to kill, but it was necessary. If she let the aliens live then one of her friends or comrades might die. She felt her heart grow heavy as she lined up her sights onto another target. She just hoped she wasn't killing any fathers or mothers, she didn't want to be responsible for leaving orphan's behind.

 **Kim Holz; Xcom Psionic Scout running away from outpost 8; june 11th**

Kim felt and heard something hit the ground. She took the chance to peek over cover and she felt her eyebrows raise in pleasant surprise at what she saw. A cyberdisc in combat form, he/she/it didn't give the x-rays a chance to get over their surprise from the synth suddenly dropping in. The two plasma repeaters began to spew out pulses of plasma onto the surprised x-rays. Meanwhile to her growing surprise a shot from a plasma lance took an x-ray's life before taking another.

 **"Kim! Get out of there! Use the sewer to get back to base without trouble. I'll meet you halfway."** Jace ordered frantically as the x-ray troop transports got closer and the doors opened to reveal x-rays who began to fire at the cyberdisc, however thankfully none of them seemed to have heavy weapons.

Kim did not need any more convincing as she ran over to the middle of the street and pried the manhole open and slipped inside. She was greeted by almost pitch black darkness as she quickly shut it behind her. Kim allowed herself a breath of relief as she climbed down the semi short ladder. She almost fell on her rear when she stepped off the ladder, the last rung was missing causing her to misjudge the distance.

She quickly made her way through the tunnels which were marked with xcom level efficiency. She silently thanked the builders of the tunnels as she walked. Kim paused as she heard something scurrying about, something big. Kim quickened her pace. There really wasn't any dangerous wildlife on Shanxi bar a few poisonous animals. She heard the scurrying sound yet again, but this time it was closer, much closer.

Now Kim was running, a panicked almost blind run. But it wasn't without reason, she could hear somethings else running and it was gaining. In the dark light of the sewer tunnels she had tripped over her own feet twice and she was having a hard time navigating. She looked over her shoulder for only a second, but that was all Kim needed to accidentally run into a wall.

Kim fell to her rear painfully and groaned, struggling to get up. She grit her teeth, the pain from her encounter had started to come about. The adrenaline of it all had kept her busy from noticing the pain, unfortunately, that made it all worse as it crashed upon her like a tidal wave.

She gave up, there was no way she could move in this sort of condition. Only thing to do now was wait for someone to rescue her… She propped herself against the sewer wall, looking from side to side as the scuttling noise grew nearer. Fear numbing most of her senses and heightening the ones it didn't. Kim silently whispered a prayer that if whatever was following her wanted her dead, it was at least quick. The scurrying stopped with a splash of water.

Kim shifted, agony shooting up her spine, she could only groan pathetically. In the dark water in front of her, two yellow lights accompanied by gentle glowing orange spikes slowly came up from the water. Her breath hitched as the dimmed lights gave her a profile of a spindly figure on four long sharp tipped legs that was dripping water.

Kim couldn't move, horror anchoring her in place as the insectoid spindly figure rose out of the water to stand above her at at least 6 inches tall in height. Two long…'feelers' ran over her face and armor, the feelers came to a halt at the xcom symbol that was in here armor. Suddenly two clawed four finger hands gripped her body tightly and kim blacked out not only from fear, but from her earlier injuries.

 **Orinthia Ochoa & 2401 Ruinous Bias; Xcom Viper Sniper & Cyberdisc nearing outpost 8; june 11th**

Orinthia smiled as she saw the injured agent slip into the sewers, at least she would be safe there. Her smile faded as she refocused her rifle on another target. 2401 Ruinous Bias was taking heavy fire and it was starting to show. Dents showed and scorch marks marred his shell. **"Ruiness Bias I think we've done our job. Let's get out of here before we can't leave!"** She exclaimed loudly

Ruiness Bias lowered himself to the ground before jumping into the air, while in the air he folded back into his disc form and quickly took to flight. The bullets that had once slammed into his form now either grazed and bounced off harmlessly or missed altogether. The cyberdisc flew up to Orinthia's position. The Viper sniper wasted little time in jumping onto the synthetics marred and battle scarred shell where she gripped onto him for dear life.

 **"Mission accomplished."** 2401 Ruinous Bias reported as he flew as fast as he could, he needed repairs badly, some of those bullets had gotten past his shell and done some real damage. Hopefully it wouldn't take him out of the fight for too long. He felt the viper patting his shell and talking in that happy tone she always had. He didn't hear what she had said, but he agreed completely.

 ***A/N* multiple turians heads on pikes all over it's body, some of the heads were mutilated. Missing fringes and mandibles alike. It was also...painted in blue blood, intricate designs drawn with what he assumed were fingers from the prints that could be found all over it.**

 **What do you guys think of this? Me and my beta got into a spat over this, is this cringey and unneeded? (yes)[we know your opinion already hush] (Nein) Or does it show just how far Xcom is willing to go to win? Or does some of this have to be toned down? I kinda want to portray war at its nastiest. Take note, this Xcom had stuffed heads and bodies.**

 **So DARK SOULS 3 is very fun. But sad. Oh my fair lady, why must thy fate tear at mine heart? ALSO YOSHKA BEST GIRL. Seriously she is so damn innocent it's adorable. Also fuck the Blue Sentinels and BladeOFtheDarkmoon. I want those EARS!**

 **Here's a little example.**

" _In a twist of events, it turned out that Hayden had a problem with gravity. Being throw off an edge to his death more than five times. But the good news was that Hayden found Cornyx of the Great swamp. Although, again, Hyden didn't think he would use pyromancy he still accepted the old man's offer. Taking a few steps away from the now empty cage, the rotted wood beneath his fate gave way and Hayden tumbled through it, getting stuck halfway through the floor. "Gods damn it." He muttered."_


End file.
